The statements in the background of the invention are provided to assist with understanding the invention and its applications and uses, and may not constitute prior art.
Business-to-business (B2B) companies struggle to generate a predictable volume of high-quality leads. A typical conversion rate for a B2B marketing campaign is only about 3%; and furthermore, not all leads are created equal. That is, not all converted leads have the same value or ease of acquisition, and increasing lead volume alone does not necessarily bring higher lead-to-opportunity conversions or closed sales further down the sales funnel. Even though correlated, marketing activities do not directly equate to sales outcomes.
One cause for such unproductive and ineffective lead generation is the open-loop nature of conventional B2B marketing strategies, which are often viewed in isolation, separately from sales functions. There are many marketing activities that generate leads, yet it is hard to consistently source leads generated to specific acquisition channels. For example, marketing acquisition channels include, but are not limited to, events, content marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), advertising, emails, webinars, referrals, and many others. Depending on the particular industry of interest and the amount of resources invested, different acquisition channels provide leads with different lead-to-opportunity conversion rates.
Another difficulty in generating a consistent number of leads of a certain quality with certain prospect profiles is advertising and data fraud, made easy by the anonymous nature of digital advertising. Advertising fraud may result from the use of bots that mimic the activities of human browsers, from inflated advertising counts via pixel stuffing and ad stacking, or from inaccurate or insufficient data collection by advertising channels, such as via cookies by Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google, or by other means. Data fraud or “dirty data” may result from inaccurate data input or collection, such as when unverified or fraudulent ages, locations, or identities are extracted from social media networks. In general, advertising tends to generate a wide spectrum of leads in terms of quality, with large fluctuations in cost spent per lead.
Moreover, it is common practice for B2B companies to utilize sales force automation (SFA) systems designed based on conventional marketing strategies developed before the advent of the social networking age. Such tools streamline the business process, but are not capable of seizing on as many potential opportunities as possible. SFA systems use software to automate the business tasks of sales, including order processing, contact management, information sharing, inventory monitoring and control, order tracking, customer management, sales forecast analysis, employee performance evaluation, and even marketing. SFA is often carried out using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Many CRM and SFA systems were designed in the 1990s, before social networking became ubiquitous, and thus such systems often reflect the conventional way that business operates, where a salesperson initiates an action, instead of having the customer taking initiative. In the case where system data are not up-to-date, there would be further lags and missed opportunities. Also, while some systems generate lookalike clients to existing customers, they do so by relying on internal information only, and are thus limited in capturing potential clients not already in the system. Alternatively, some systems generate lookalikes based on external data sources, but are usually limited to simple demographic data.
Furthermore, marketers often fall under the false impression that all digital marketing tools necessary for growth and for generating new leads roll up under the hood of marketing automation. This misconception leaves many marketers with sophisticated tools to automate the middle of their funnel, yet without generating new leads to nurture in the first place. As a result, marketers end up buying lists of email addresses to nurture instead of generating inbound leads, which are customer initiated, and reflect a higher level of customer interest. While outbound marketing to large email lists seems like a quick fix, this is not a long-term solution for sustained success, nor does it create any fertile ground for a healthier, longer relationship between B2B companies and their future customers. Therefore, obtaining reliable business client leads with conventional marketing and sales automation software is often time consuming and expensive.
In addition, marketers often target companies and personas that do not reflect their ideal customer profile (ICP) and end up spending marketing budgets on unqualified prospects, wasting company funds and the time of their sales counterparts.
Therefore, in view of the aforementioned difficulties, it would be an advancement in the state of the art to provide systems and methods for generating high-quality business leads for B2B companies.
It is against this background that the present invention was developed.